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Queens’ MarketPlace will light up island nightlife with the highly-anticipated Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas, an upscale, three-screen movie venue with a full-service restaurant and bar. When the curtain goes up on Friday, movie lovers will be able to kick back in a cushy leather seat and order a glass of wine to enjoy with a first-run feature.
Guests will enter a spacious, contemporary lobby, with a bar and high-end furnishings, including an actual sample of the theaters’ leather loveseats to “test drive.” A 25-foot passageway of glass doors will lead into a 5,000 square-foot outdoor lanai lounge, available to everyone, movie patron or not.

Three exclusive auditoriums, outfitted with cutting-edge sound and projection equipment, will seat 85-100 people each, the largest offering Real 3-D technology. Food and beverages—from popcorn and sodas to gourmet snacks, pizza and cocktails—may be purchased prior to the show, or ordered for delivery to the loveseat.

“The ‘luxury cinema’ concept has proven to be quite a hit on the mainland,” said Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas owner Tony Dalzell, “so we decided that would be our business model here.” With an MBA and extensive experience in consumer marketing, Dalzell was also owner-operator of Marina WaterSports, Inc., California’s largest watercraft and parasailing attraction. Assisting Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas is theater consultant Scott Stalcup who has overseen 100 plus projects for AMC Theaters.

Since most of North Hawai‘i gets its movie fix in Kona or Honoka‘a or from Netflix on the sofa, Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas is date night waiting to happen. The Dalzells easily saw the potential success of adding a theater to Waikoloa Beach Resort nightlife.

“It’s no secret that, after dark, one’s entertainment options around here are pretty limited,” said Dalzell, who moved to the island earlier this year with wife Maria after visiting annually for two decades. “Retirement was an option but we both wanted something to do. We’re happy that it ended up being something that’s a contribution to our new community.”

In addition to films, Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas will be available for rentals, concerts and live performances. It will offer a potential boon for neighboring businesses, and will be providing about 45 new jobs in the community. For more information please visit their website at hawaiicinemas.com, or email inquiry@hawaiicinemas.com.

Since it opened in 2007, Queens’ MarketPlace in Waikoloa Beach Resort has earned a reputation among visitors and kama‘āina as “the gathering place of the Kohala Coast,” full of shopping opportunities, services and great food, along with entertainment and arts programs, movies under the stars and large-scale concerts in Waikoloa Bowl at Queens’ Gardens. For more information, visit www.QueensMarketPlace.net or call (808) 886-8822.

Stars forming in galaxies appear to be influenced by the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, but the mechanism of how that happens has not been clear to astronomers until now.

Image of the quasar host galaxy from the UC San Diego research team’s data. The distance to this quasar galaxy is ~9.3 billion light years. The four-color image shows findings from use of the Keck Observatory and ALMA. As seen from Keck Observatory, the green colors highlight the energetic gas across the galaxy that is being illuminated by the quasar. The blue color represents powerful winds blowing throughout the galaxy. The red-orange colors represent the cold molecular gas in the system as seen from ALMA. The supermassive black hole sits at the center of the bright red-orange circular area slightly below the middle of the image. Credit: A. VAYNER AND TEAM

“Supermassive black holes are captivating,” says lead author Shelley Wright, a University of California San Diego Professor of Physics. “Understanding why and how galaxies are affected by their supermassive black holes is an outstanding puzzle in their formation.”

In a study published today in The Astrophysical Journal, Wright, graduate student Andrey Vayner, and their colleagues examined the energetics surrounding the powerful winds generated by the bright, vigorous supermassive black hole (known as a “quasar”) at the center of the 3C 298 host galaxy, located approximately 9.3 billion light years away.

“We study supermassive black holes in the very early universe when they are actively growing by accreting massive amounts of gaseous material,” says Wright. “While black holes themselves do not emit light, the gaseous material they chew on is heated to extreme temperatures, making them the most luminous objects in the universe.”

The UC San Diego team’s research revealed that the winds blow out through the entire galaxy and impact the growth of stars.

“This is remarkable that the supermassive black hole is able to impact stars forming at such large distances,” says Wright.

Today, neighboring galaxies show that the galaxy mass is tightly correlated with the supermassive black hole mass. Wright’s and Vayner’s research indicates that 3C 298 does not fall within this normal scaling relationship between nearby galaxies and the supermassive black holes that lurk at their center. But, in the early universe, their study shows that the 3C 298 galaxy is 100 times less massive than it should be given its behemoth supermassive black hole mass.

This implies that the supermassive black hole mass is established well before the galaxy, and potentially the energetics from the quasar are capable of controlling the growth of the galaxy.

To conduct the study, the UC San Diego researchers utilized multiple state-of-the-art astronomical facilities. The first of these was Keck Observatory’s instrument OSIRIS (OH-Suppressing Infrared Imaging Spectrograph) and its advanced adaptive optics (AO) system. An AO system allows ground-based telescopes to achieve higher quality images by correcting for the blurring caused by the Earth’s atmosphere. The resulting images are as good as those obtained from space.

The second major facility was the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, known as “ALMA,” an international observatory in Chile that is able to detect millimeter wavelengths using up to 66 antennae to achieve high-resolution images of the gas surrounding the quasar.

“The most enjoyable part of researching this galaxy has been putting together all the data from different wavelengths and techniques,” said Vayner. “Each new dataset that we obtained on this galaxy answered one question and helped us put some of the pieces of the puzzle together. However, at the same time, it created new questions about the nature of galaxy and supermassive black hole formation.”

Wright agreed, saying that the data sets were “tremendously gorgeous” from both Keck Observatory and ALMA, offering a wealth of new information about the universe.

These findings are the first results from a larger survey of distant quasars and their energetics’ impact on star formation and galaxy growth. Vayner and the team will continue developing results on more distant quasars using the new facilities and capabilities from Keck Observatory and ALMA.

ABOUT OSIRIS

The OH-Suppressing Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (OSIRIS) is one of W. M. Keck Observatory’s “integral field spectrographs.” The instrument works behind the adaptive optics system, and uses an array of lenslets to sample a small rectangular patch of the sky at resolutions approaching the diffraction limit of the 10-meter Keck Telescope. OSIRIS records an infrared spectrum at each point within the patch in a single exposure, greatly enhancing its efficiency and precision when observing small objects such as distant galaxies. It is used to characterize the dynamics and composition of early stages of galaxy formation.

ABOUT W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY

The W. M. Keck Observatory telescopes are among the most scientifically productive on Earth. The two, 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes on the summit of Maunakea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrometers, and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems.

Some of the data presented herein were obtained at Keck Observatory, which is a private 501(c) 3 non-profit organization operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.

“The collection is managed by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) on 33 acres of land in Hilo as part of the agency’s National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Tropical Fruit and Nut Crops.

The ARS collection represents a treasure of genetic resources for identifying and improving important traits in commercial pineapples as well as for research to understand the basic biology and evolution of different plant processes.

Big-name as well as little-known pineapple accessions alike are kept there. Some, like Smooth Cayenne, are industry leaders, prized for their fresh fruit or canning quality. Others, like Saigon Red, are more obscure though no less worth preserving.

A miniature pineapple brought to Hawaii from Vietnam in 1938, Saigon Red is too tart to eat. However, its compact size, red-skinned fruit and long, shapely leaves could prove ideal for landscape plantings or indoor use as a decorative plant.

Ensuring the good health and availability of the Hilo collection—which numbers 186 different kinds of wild and cultivated pineapple—can be labor-intensive; so, too, can cataloguing the plants and their traits. Now, new tools called “molecular markers” are helping to speed up the process—from 18 months to 2 years down to just a few days. The markers detect the gene or genes for specific traits in the pineapple’s DNA. This can be done with seedlings rather than full-grown plants, saving time, money and resources.

Just as canning refinements made Hawaii an early world leader in exports, so too is the state on the cusp of technology today to mine the fruit crop’s untapped genetic potential, with benefits to growers and consumers across the globe.”

The Department of Parks and Recreation is pleased to announce that the Mauna Kea Recreation Area’s Bunkhouses will be available for public use commencing January 3, 2018.

Effective immediately, applications for Bunkhouse lodging permits may be obtained via the Department’s online camping reservation system at http://hawaiicounty.ehawaii.gov or in person at the Department’s administration office located at Aupuni Center, 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 6.

The Bunkhouse accommodations are intended for use by groups and organizations (seven persons minimum), have a maximum capacity of 48 persons, and may be reserved for up to six consecutive nights. There are two Bunkhouses, each containing four individual rooms capable of accommodating up to six persons each. Each room is furnished with a folding table and chairs, and has a shower, toilet and lavatory. Permittees must furnish their own bedding, food and personal supplies.

Groups that utilize the Bunkhouses will be provided access to the dining hall, a separate structure that consists of a kitchen and dining area for preparing and eating meals and group activities. Groups must provide their own meal preparation equipment and supplies, foodstuffs, serving/dining supplies, and cleaning supplies. The kitchen is equipped with an electric range/oven and refrigerator/freezer. The dining hall is equipped with folding tables and chairs.

The cost for overnight use of each of the two Bunkhouses (maximum 24 occupants each) is $240 for Hawai‘i residents, and $480 for non-Hawai‘i residents. There is a one-time refundable security deposit of $250 per Bunkhouse that also covers use of the dining hall. The security deposit will be refunded in full provided the permittee complies with all conditions of the lodging permit.

Persons interested in utilizing these facilities shall review the Department’s Administrative Rule 16, “Rules Relating to Mauna Kea Recreation Area,” for details on the costs, expectations and proper use of the Bunkhouses, as well as the Park in general.

Mauna Kea Recreation Area users are reminded that the following are prohibited within the Park: alcohol, smoking, tobacco products, firearms and explosives, open fires or burning of any kind, dogs and pets (excluding service animals), and fireworks. See Rule 16 for a full list of prohibited items and activities.

Public use of the Park’s seven individual Cabins will be phased in over the upcoming months as the Department works to certify that operational procedures are perfected, to ensure reliable, safe and positive experiences at the Park. Additional information will be provided as the Cabins become available.

For more information please contact the Department of Parks and Recreation at (808) 961-8311.

The Hawaii Department of Health has added Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) to the list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis use. The decision was based on a rigorous review and analysis of written and oral testimony, a public hearing, and peer-reviewed scientific evidence.

Of the 29 states and U.S. jurisdictions that permit medical cannabis, 19 include ALS as a qualifying health condition.

Although the Hawaii Department of Health found little evidence to support the value of medical cannabis for ALS; DOH determined medical cannabis may be appropriate for patients diagnosed with ALS after receiving a comprehensive assessment by a patient’s physician or APRN and a risk-benefit discussion.

The Petition Process

In April 2017, the Department of Health opened the petition process to allow patients, physicians, and advance practice registered nurses (APRNs) to petition the department to add new debilitating medical conditions to the existing list of conditions that could benefit from the use medical cannabis.

Unlike prescription medications that undergo rigorous clinical trials for the treatment of certain health conditions before being released to consumers, medical cannabis does not have that same level of evaluation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Under Hawaii Revised Statutes, all new conditions must be thoroughly reviewed from an evidence-based perspective and be subject to a public hearing. This year, the Department of Health received two such requests and began the review process.

The other condition submitted for consideration was general anxiety disorder (GAD). The Department of Health declined this request because at this time there is inconclusive medical evidence that cannabis has beneficial use in the treatment or alleviation of symptoms of anxiety, social phobia, and social anxiety disorder (SAD), and no evidence specific to GAD.

In addition, because the prevalence of GAD, high rate of comorbidities, and dearth of scientific evidence to support the use of cannabis in the treatment of GAD, the potential for adverse outcomes is a public health concern.

Next Year’s Petition Process Deadline

Next year’s deadline to request the addition of new health conditions is Feb. 19, 2018. The petition form is available online for patients, physicians, and APRNs and must be submitted by the deadline to be included in the public hearings tentatively scheduled for May 2018. Any petitions received after Feb. 19 may be considered the following year.